Jessica M. Cummins

PMP, CHS-V, DABCHS

Jessica considers herself very fortunate to have worked as a public servant for over 20 years in a broad range of federal, state and local venues and capacities. She is an accomplished Emergency Response and Public Safety professional with a strong law enforcement background and a track record building consensus and coalescing individuals and organizations into solid teams creating positive outcomes through leadership and a global perspective. Jessica has “boots on the ground” disaster response experience, worked in pre-event planning, post-incident reporting, served on practitioner committees, and is a public speaker. She has her Project Management Professional certification; has achieved Diplomat status with the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security (ABCHS); is an alternate for the ABCHS Executive Committee; and memberships with professional and volunteer organizations.

Jessica has coordinated or led teams for specialized programs that require management plans, financial management, facility security projects, evacuation procedures, credentialing, written proposals, science and technology integration, data collection, and analysis. She has interagency collaboration and coordination experience. Jessica has worked at a Department of Homeland Security national training center and with the United States Coast Guard (USCG), Navy, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Customs Border Protection (CBP), Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, Transportation Security Administration, Business Executives for National Security and Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters to name a few.

Jessica began her career with the Oklahoma City Police Department as an officer, retiring as a Division Commander. She was fortunate to have worked in a variety of roles within the Operations and Investigations Bureaus, Office of the Chief of Police, Laboratory Services Division, and Police Community Relations Unit. Special assignments included being the overnight Public Information Officer for the Oklahoma City Bombing, an Incident Commander, Emergency Response Team Commander, and Mobile Command Post Supervisor. In 2004 she was offered an opportunity in San Diego California with the San Diego Harbor Police Department as a Captain overseeing the Homeland Security Division. While with the San Diego Harbor Police Department, she helped manage a ten million dollar security contract with the San Diego Regional Airport Authority and 15 million dollars in grant funds implementing 17 projects for critical infrastructure protection. From there and through her work with surrounding agencies she was appointed to the California Office of Homeland Security through the Governors’ Office as Deputy Director of Planning, Research and Emergency Preparedness. During her employment with the California Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, Jessica was fully engaged in supporting initiatives internally and externally; such as the training and exercise programs which included international exercises with Mexico and Spills of National Significance. Always looking to further her career and give back she accepted a position in the state of Alabama at the Center of Domestic Preparedness (CDP) as Deputy Project Manager for Training Delivery and Curriculum Development. At the CDP she directed activities of eight department managers managing a variety of critical areas including: resident and mobile training delivery of 42 courses.

In addition to her work responsibilities, Jessica is a member of the Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team Region 9 as an Emergency Planning Analyst. She has been deployed to the American Samoa Tsunami in October 2009 and the Haiti Earthquake in February 2010. As a consultant, Jessica worked in the Mobile, Alabama and Venice, Louisiana operation centers for the BP oil spill response for 9 months.

Jessica attended the University of North Dakota graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree, where she was a letter winner in Softball and Golf. She received her Masters of Science from the University of Oklahoma. Jessica enjoys an active lifestyle through volunteering, working out, travel, watching sports, and playing golf.